Leader of the Pack (66 page)

Aislinn knelt over Cullen with tears in her eyes. “This isn’t happening.” Her head ached with each word Maon forced into it. “
Rach-air-muin,” she screamed at him through the tears.
Aislinn could barely think. “I’m dreaming. This isn’t real,” she sobbed as she held Cullen in her arms, rocking back and forth. “Cullen please. You can’t do this.” Aislinn closed her eyes and reached into his mind, but she couldn’t feel him at all.

As Maon came up behind Aislinn, Malik stepped in his way. Quiet nonsense Gaelic poured from his lips Malik, and determination masked his face.

Maon laughed, guttural and menacing
. Out of my way little man. I may need you yet. Don’t make me kill you.

Malik almost faltered, as the words rushed through his head. He fought to keep his concentration. Out of nowhere, Jacob appeared behind Maon, and with fear in their eyes the two men knelt, touching their hands to the ground.

Maon watched them with amused confusion for a moment.
Do you think bowing before me will earn you something?

Malik and Jacob stopped speaking, and the ground beneath Maon’s feet began to crumble. Before Maon could react the earth opened up, and he fell. The sound of his screaming was cut off, as the ground closed up again, and appeared as if nothing had happened. He was gone.

Jacob stared at the spot where Maon had been swallowed by the earth. “D'anam don diabhal,” he said softly.

Stunned, Jenna gaped at the druids, until she realized that there were three of them standing around her. She shook her head, fear gripped her stomach, and she envisioned herself being swallowed up as Maon had been. “No,” she said desperately to the men she had been torturing for days. “I’ll stop it. I can fix it. I swear.” Jenna howled into the night, and the confused Tairneach began to stand down. The druids remained encircling Jenna, holding her there by threat alone.

Malik and Jacob knelt next to Aislinn. “He’s still here Aislinn.”

She turned on them, sobbing. “What? In spirit? I need him here,” she cried, and she pressed her hand to his chest. Aislinn felt the power of the circle surge through her again, a cooling sensation tingled through her body, taking away her pain, and suddenly Cullen gasped for air.

Malik put his hand on her shoulder, as she watched Cullen in shock. “I told you. His soul had not yet moved on.”

Then Malik pulled a vial from his pocket, uncorked it and poured the liquid into Cullen’s mouth. He choked on some, but swallowed most of it. Aislinn helped him to sit up. He was staring around bewildered and trying to catch his breath. Aislinn buried her head against his chest. She couldn’t stop the tears. Putting his arms around her, Cullen looked questioningly at Malik. The fight seemed to be ending, but he had obviously missed part of it.

* * * *

Celia paced and waited impatiently, as the wounded were carried in one at a time. “Maybe he’s just unconscious,” she kept saying. Rissa watched her. Celia kept trying to get out when the door was left unattended. Each time, Rissa intercepted her and reminded her why she was inside.

Keith came in the front door carrying Sarah. She was too badly hurt to completely regain consciousness. Still, she would survive. Celia came up to them and looked down at Sarah with fear in her eyes. “She’ll be okay Cel. But move, we’ve got a lot more coming in.”

“Have you seen Mack,” she asked softly.

“Yeah, he’s coming.” Keith walked passed Celia with Sarah and headed for the elevator in the back of the main room. He wasn’t about to use the stairs tonight.

Despondent, Celia turned around to continue watching the door and almost started crying. Mack was helping Drake to limp into the room. Celia rushed over to them and grabbed Mack around the neck, hugging and kissing him.

“Hey,” Drake yelled when Celia nearly pulled them over. “Save it for after I get put down,” he growled.

Celia reluctantly let them go, following them over to the couch where Mack helped Drake to sit down. Then he called some omegas over to take Drake the rest of the way upstairs.

When he looked back to Celia, she had tears in her eyes. “Our bond is broken,” she said unhappily. She didn’t even want to imagine what had happened that would have been bad enough to break their connection.

Mack took her hand and pulled it to his lips. “We never completed it in the first place. We’ll put it back. And we’ll do it right this time,” he said.

She smiled at him through the tears and wrapped her arms around him again.

“Careful,” he said, wincing as she squeezed some soft spots. “I’m still tender.”

* * * *

Jenna and the rest of the Tairneach were rounded up. Cadifor decided that the Pack Council would have to be formally informed, and then they would decide what to do with Jenna and the rest of the Tairneach. He wasn’t sure if the pack would be disbanded and the territory redistributed or if the Tairneach would be trusted to resolve the issue within their own structure. The Council would have to discuss it.

By the time the druids finished assessing the wounded and mostly dead lycans the body count was reduced to five. As much as they hated to lose anyone, five was a great deal more acceptable than what it could have been. The Tairneach weren’t so lucky. The dires who were killed had been ripped apart. There was no salvaging that kind of death. There were limits to what could be healed in a body.

Cullen spent most of the rest of the evening thanking people for helping them and making sure everyone who needed anything had it. Aislinn refused to leave his side, no matter how many times he suggested she go upstairs and get some sleep. The most she did was summon an omega to bring her some clothes to put on and to take her jewelry up to their bedroom. Cullen watched her carefully remove the diamond covered chains. He had to admit that no matter how beautiful she was with them on, she was more beautiful just standing there naked.

“I heard that,” she said softly and smiled at him over her shoulder.

Keith walked up to them and watched them stare at each other a moment, before he started laughing. “So are you two ever going to get mated? I mean this is getting ridiculous.”

Cullen kicked at Keith’s bad leg for the comment. Keith, for his part, dodged the half-hearted attack gracefully. “I’m just saying that I need to know what to tell all these guests in the morning when they start asking what’s going on,” he grinned widely.

Cullen shook his head. “We need recovery time.”

“Again,” Keith added emphatically, and Cullen kicked at him again.

“We have five deaths and a bunch of injured people. Tell them all we reconvene in a month’s time. That should give us all a chance to regroup.”

Keith shrugged. “Are you sure you want to drag this out for an entire month?”

“Yeah, it should have been planned that way anyhow. We rushed things for any number of reasons. All of those seem to have been dealt with. Though, at this point I’m not counting on anything,” he growled. Aislinn scoffed in agreement. “Just tell them all that everyone who is here now is welcome back in a month.”

Keith nodded and took off to spread the information, leaving Cullen to finish dealing with the rest of the people he needed to personally see to that evening. It was nearly morning by the time they managed to go up to their room. Aislinn followed Cullen into the shower and then into their bed. They were so exhausted that they were asleep instantaneously.

Chapter 25

Avoid the evil, and it will avoid thee.

-Gaelic Proverb

The pack at large slept significantly later than they normally would have. There was almost no one interested in breakfast. Cullen actually opened his eyes at roughly the same time his alarm ordinarily would have rang, but he growled, wrapped Aislinn more tightly in his arms, and went back to sleep, listening to her purr and breathing her scent.

Around noon a few of the omegas knocked on the main door to the alpha’s room. If the bedroom door hadn’t been left slightly open on the sitting room, Cullen and Aislinn probably wouldn’t have heard the knock. An annoyed growl from inside almost sent the omegas away, before Aislinn called, “come in.”

Cullen grinned without opening his eyes. He liked the fact that she was getting confident enough to speak up as if this was her room as well as his.

Aislinn sat up, holding the blanket over herself to see who it was. Cullen growled and tried to pull her back down in the bed. “Whoever it is, it can’t be good. You should have let me scare them away.”

Aislinn sighed. “But there are so many people here. We should be downstairs already.”

Cullen popped one eye open. “That’s my line.” He rolled onto his back and looked at her. “What has Makeda been telling you?”

“What makes you think it was Makeda?” Aislinn grinned and wrapped the blanket around her, as she got up and walked toward the door. He watched in amazement. She had come a long way in so short a time.

When Aislinn poked her head out the bedroom, three omegas were in the process of bringing food into the sitting room. “What’s this,” she asked as she approached them.

The man barking all the orders looked distressed when he saw her standing there. “You don’t have to get up, Mistress. We’ll bring it in to you. Keith sent up breakfast or lunch. There’s a little of both.”

“Thank you,” she said, smiling gratefully, and led the way into the bedroom.

Cullen lounged on the bed with his hands behind his head, not caring that he was completely naked, or that there were three people walking in behind Aislinn. He was even more impressed, when Aislinn studiously ignored the looks that the pretty omega, helping with the trays, flashed him.

Aislinn got back into bed and laid down against Cullen’s side, putting her head on his shoulder and draping her arm across him, taking the blanket she had wrapped around her with it and covering the parts of Cullen she didn’t want the girl to look at. Cullen grinned and kissed the top of her head. She wasn’t really jealous or upset by the situation, just making sure the girl was aware of the fact that he was claimed.

Stomach growling, now that food was in sight, Cullen sat up, forcing Aislinn to sit up with him. She was meticulous about keeping herself covered. Cullen figured that it would be a long time before she got completely over that. There was a small possessive part of his brain that kind of liked the fact that she kept herself for him. The lycan part of his brain, however, was amused and wondered why she thought she needed to cover up. She was beautiful and should appreciate the fact that people enjoyed looking at her. He leaned over and kissed her cheek as the omegas set up the trays. She smiled at him knowingly. She caught the entire thought process and was keeping her comments to herself. He kissed her again.

The omegas smiled at each other and finished putting the trays of food together. There was a lot more food than either Cullen or Aislinn would eat. Aislinn’s stomach was bothering her a bit, so she wasn’t really hungry, still she smiled gratefully at the omegas and said, “thank you,” again as they left. When she got strange but appreciative looks from them, she shook her head.

The door closed, and Aislinn examined her plate. “You know it really isn’t right that no one ever seems to be grateful of the omegas. I know the rank thing and all is important, but I feel guilty when I say ‘thank you’ and get looked at as if I’ve just given someone a present.”

Cullen pulled a piece of bacon off the tray and popped it into his mouth as he settled back into the bed. “You’re probably right. ‘Thank yous’ wouldn’t kill anyone. But I have to point out that the Arnauk omegas are generally treated better than most. You were just raised with a different idea about rank. If they want to be more appreciated, then they should work a little harder and get themselves out of the omega role.”

Aislinn rolled her eyes at him, as she poked at a waffle covered in strawberries and whipped cream. “So what’s on the agenda for today?”

Cullen took in a deep breath and let it out as he thought about that. “Clean up. Why? What are you concerned about?” He could feel she was pushing in a particular direction.

“The books that caused all this trouble are still at Tairneach manor.”

He growled. If he had gone after those damn books back when she told him about them in the first place…

She interrupted his thoughts. “Not to mention the original implication was that I was supposed to stop someone else from getting the books away from the Tairneach. I still haven’t managed that and we don’t know who the someone I’m supposed to intercept is.” There was a level of confidence in her tone that made him look at her differently.

He nodded. “Alright. When we’re done eating, we’ll go down to the rooms where we put the Tairneach and get Jenna to tell us where the books are.” He pulled her closer, kissed some whipped cream out of the corner of her mouth and licked his lips.

Aislinn giggled at him, and they ended up laying back in the bed and kissing some more. Cullen’s hand explored her breasts, pinching at one nipple and then another. The breakfast was about to be knocked to the floor when his cell phone rang. Groaning, Cullen fell back onto his pillow and acted as if it was more effort than he was capable of to answer it.

Aislinn reached over him and picked it up, knowing that he was finding her new sense of initiative amusing. “Yeah,” she said into the phone, as she pushed the blanket back, ran her hand teasingly down his stomach and began to toy with Cullen mischievously.